Abradi

abradi Ama, Nyimang (Sudan) – The Supreme God and Creator, who lived in the sky. Abradi was all-powerful and above all spirits, whose power came from him. Although no one had ever seen Abradi, people called on him for help when drought, famine, or epidemics struck. One tale explains why Abradi and the spirits were distant from Earth and human activities. In the beginning, the sky was so close to Earth that it pressed down on people and interfered with their everyday activities. Women had to bend low over their cooking pots in order to stir the food. One woman became so annoyed that she reached up and stabbed the sky with her stirring rod. This angered the sky (personified by Abradi, the sky god) so greatly that the sky and all the spirits moved far away from the Earth.

In a myth about the origin of death, when someone died, Abradi told the people that the person would come to life again the next day if they just set the body aside. So it was—anyone who died came back to life the next morning. Once, however, when a man died, a rabbit reached the people before Abradi did. Rabbits did not get along with people, and this rabbit wanted to cause mischief. It told the people to bury the dead man or else Abradi would destroy them. Frightened, the people buried the man. When Abradi found out what they had done, he decreed that from then on death would be permanent.